what;s everyone think about the NASM (National Association of Sports Medicine)? I’m lookin into gettin an apprentice ship with an athletic training expert who has his own sports training complex where I live. He said alot of his principles were based from the NASM… Any thoughts?
great paints…poor paint brush.
I have the NASM certification. Its pretty good for couch potatoes with athletic dreams or to do rehab/prehab work with athletes. But I would not use this with “real hard core athletes” to get them ready for a season. They go over some very good stuff MUCH better than other certifications. Its great to get this one to get your foot in the door. I’ve gotten a couple of calls from conditioning facilities because I have it on my resume. Bottom line: get it just to have it under your belt but keep studying and learning as much as you can.
To Clemson,
Some funny sh1t 
Yes the paint might be good but they way they brush it on makes for an awsome counterfit master piece…
haha yeah I understand what you mean… Thanks…
By the way does the training facility have a website?
I also have the certification because I wanted to see what it was all about. It’s pretty much a watered down rehab/pre-hab program that then tries to get into sport-specific tpye of exercises. They teach the flawed technique of drawing the navel in on every exercise to activate the transversus abdominus muscle (TVA) which by itself almost renders the certification as worthless.
With that said, they do have some nice medicine ball and plyometric progressions but as was mentioned in a previous post, it really doesn’t apply to the elite athlete. Howver, it is still better than most personal training certifications out there but that isn’t saying much! The best education is to self-educate and have a passion for learning!
Why is the drawing in the navel a bad thing? I tell people with bad balance to tighten up the abs slightly NOT the valsava just a slight contraction of the abs during balance exersices… I hope I have not been messing them up in any way 
It goes back to the whole debate of “drawing in” versus “bracing.” There’s plenty of so called experts on either side of the debate but when it comes to the science, the bracing fraternity has the edge. With drawing in, what people are doing is trying to recruit their deep abdominal muscles(TVA, internal olbique). If someone is succesful at acomplishing the isolated recruitement, they’ve basically just eliminated the rest of the gang(rectus abdominus, external oblique) and are stabilizing the spine and pelvis with only half of the regular crew members.
With bracing on the other hand, you cue someone to not suck in or push out. Instead the cue is to just “tighten” as if bracing for a punch. What this does is recruit all the relevant musculature of the midsection ensuring maximum stability during loading and dynamic movement. When combined witht the appropriate breath holding, which is completely natural, a pneumatic brace is achieved. Canadian Spine researcher Stuart MGill had two very good books that go over all this and dispel a lot of spine and ab training controversy.
The NASM is one of the only certification companies I know of that teach this technique. I wonder if they aware of MGill’s research and others that prove that technique as faulty? I like a lot of what the NASM teaches but am completely opposed to this faulty advice.
I guess I was on the right track.
As with any certification it is what you make it. I am a firm believer that the more certs you have the better of you will be in the long run. There are groups out there that say the best cert is the NSCA-CSCS But as far as I am concerned the its not. Let me explain why I think this, To sit for the test you have to have a BA,Bs ( any 4 year degree ) It can be in “under water basket weaving” it dose not make sense. I have looked at most of the certs and decided on the ISSA.
What’s the ISSA?
International sport sciences association
It was started by DR. Fred Hatfeild ( DR.squat ) and DR. SAl Arria
Check out Dr.Squat website and also the ISSA website.
Agreed. I do like the ISSA’s Sports Conditioning Specialist certification MUCH more than the NSCA’s CSCS but, people percieve the NSCA as the the gold standard (I really dont know why). I know many trainers that have the CSCS some of those trainers suck and some dont. So it is really what you make of it. I think the best thing is to build up your experience and stay on top of your game. IMO, with this website, and some of the websites of the senior memebers here, you could probably learn as much as any top notch track coach or stength/conditioning coach.
This is going to sound CORNY but:
What I do is read, learn then properly apply methods to athletes. The hard part is not using a standard template for everyone but still get good results.
Thats how I look at it. The “Certification” is just the starting point not the end. I know people with NO certs that know MORE then people with masters in Exercise Sciencies. I have my CFT though the ISSA and I’m working on my SPN and SSC. When NBFE has their testing guidelines set the CSCS will lose some of its “weight” in the industry and the playing feild will begin to level out.